Selling Process to Skeptical Stakeholders

Think about the last time a company emailed you asking to complete a customer satisfaction survey: "Help us serve you better", "We want your opinion", "Your feedback matters to us".

Did you fill it out? At best, most people click through the star rating, skip the open questions, and close the tab. The problem is that the request reads, consciously or not, as someone else's problem to solve.

Now think about the last time you asked a stakeholder to share post-launch analytics, or to fill out a brief properly, or to show up to a kickoff meeting. They heard those asks the same way: as something you need from them.

The framing of an ask determines the response it gets, if any. And creative leaders usually frame their requests the way survey companies do: in terms of what the information will do for the team doing the asking.

"This will help us improve our process." "Sharing your analytics helps us make better work." "Attending the kickoff makes it easier for our team to scope the project."

All of those things are true, but none of them give the stakeholder a reason to say yes.

There’s a common saying among doctors: “true, true, and unrelated.” It means “yes, those symptoms are real, but they’re irrelevant to the diagnosis.” The same principle applies here: Your new process might do all of those things…but those improvements seem irrelevant to your stakeholders.

Stakeholders don't ignore creative teams because they're jerks. Not most of them, anyway. They're busy, and they're running a fast, usually unconscious calculation: whose problem is this, and how urgent is it for me? When the ask is framed around what the creative team needs, that calculation comes out the wrong way.

But what changes when you flip the frame? When asking for post-launch data becomes an offer to connect the creative work to numbers the stakeholder's leadership is already watching, the dynamic shifts. When that happens, you're not asking for a favor; you're offering something they care about.

As usual with advice from the outside, this is all easier said than done.

In practice, it means knowing what your stakeholders actually care about, which can be harder than you might expect. That requires 1) structured research on the people you’re trying to influence, 2) mapping that information to what you need from them, and 3) knowing how to make the ask in their language.

I'll cover all of it in my session, "Selling Process to Skeptical Stakeholders”, at the Henry Stewart Creative Operations Summit on June 16 in New York City. You’ll leave with a clear framework for overcoming the stakeholder resistance that keeps most process rollouts from sticking.

Register for the Henry Stewart Creative Operations Summit New York 2026. Use discount code JESSEKRINSKY100 for $100 off.

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Jesse Krinsky is the founder of In Focus Consulting, where he helps in-house creative teams transition from reactive cost centers to strategic partners. He also hosts the Creative Ops Compass podcast, where he and his guests tackle the operational, organizational, and business challenges that in-house creative leaders face every day. If your team is dealing with these challenges, learn how In Focus Consulting can help.